New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo spoke on a telephone town hall last night with about 1,350 grassroots activists, signaling his strong support for campaign finance reform, saying "Campaign finance is a way to tell the people of this state and this country: It's your government. You own it. Literally." The Governor called campaign finance reform “one of the most important issues to complete” in the rest of New York’s legislative session this year.
 
The call, organized by the Fair Elections for New York coalition also included segments by national leaders from CWA, Sierra Club, and the NAACP about the importance of the New York fight and their organizations’ engagement in it. Coverage from New York Daily News, Capital Tonight, and a Storify recapping the call’s many live bloggers.

Campaign Finance/Fair Elections
Mother Jones: The White House Is for Sale Under Barack Obama, Too
“Buying and selling access is a long bipartisan tradition in American politics.” Andy Kroll looks at eight other presidents who have sold access, much like how some reformers say Obama is doing through the new nonprofit Organizing for Action.
Meanwhile, Jay Carney was calling it “absurd and wrong” to say that OFA sells access to the president, as covered in The Hill.
 
OpenSecrets Blog: Remembering CREEP, and the High Price of Easy Money
Robert Maguire looks at the history of the Federal Elections Campaign Act and Foreign Corrupt Practices Act that were instituted to fight big money in politics at home and abroad and how the American system has come close to returning to where it was before these laws were put in place.

Congress/2012
WaPo: Mitch McConnell fundraises off Rand Paul filibuster
I guess this shouldn’t be a surprise. Public Campaign Action Fund also looked at McConnell’s ties to the drone manufacturing industry, which was implicated by the filibuster.
 
 Mother Jones: The Congressman, the Safari King, and the Woman Who Tried to Look Like a Cat
Corbin Hiar’s first story over at Mother Jones looks at the International Conservation Caucus Foundation, a shadowy nonprofit funded by the Wildenstein family that “throws some of DC’s finest junkets,” including an African safari for representatives including the chair of the House ethics committee.
 
CN|2: Cathy Bailey hosts "meet and greet" for Rand Paul in Florida that brings in $25k
Turns out the flood of donations coming into Rand Paul’s leadership PAC, RANDPAC overwhelmed the servers, forcing it to shut down. The committee took in $250,000-$300,000 online and a former ambassador to Latvia, Cathy Bailey, held a meet and greet for Paul in Palm Beach, Fla. that brought in $25,000 more.
 
Syracuse Post-Standard: Republicans: Dan Maffei should reject money from special interests in next campaign
The NRCC almost has a point, but here’s the thing: In a political system where big money is currently more or less required to run for office, getting into office and then working as hard as possible to reform that system is not hypocrisy, but exactly what a reform-minded representative ought to do. That way, talk about “not unilaterally disarming” is more than a copout and we actually get closer to a system empowering everyday citizens over special interests.
 
Roll Call: Brown Joins Law Firm
As Matt O’Brien said on Twitter: “Just a guy with a truck, lobbying for Wall Street.”
 
CPI: Jeb Bush's education nonprofit rakes in cash
Could the money flooding into Jeb Bush’s education reform nonprofit be a sign of things to come for 2016?
 
The Hill: Prohibiting politics as public service
Yawn. Standard op-ed from the anti-campaign finance regulation Center for Competitive Politics, complaining about CREW’s lawsuit seeking to get the IRS to enforce laws on political spending by nonprofit groups.
 
Washington Times: Why do the Koch Brothers get all the sunshine?
An argument that the liberal Tides Foundation ought to be as big of a concern to transparency advocates as money from the Koch Brothers.
 
BLT: FEC: Larry Craig Misused Campaign Funds for Personal Legal Expenses
“A federal judge in Washington today expressed doubt that former U.S. Senator Larry Craig properly used campaign money when he spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on personal legal expenses following his arrest in 2007 in a sex sting at an airport in Minnesota.”

Other/States
NYT Editorial: A Universal Right to Vote
The NYT ed board: not only should the court uphold Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act to prevent racially motivated voter suppression, a new law should be passed enshrining the right to vote for all. “What’s really needed is a new act that makes access to the polls a universal American right.”
 
Orlando Sentinel: Senate advancing its own campaign-finance reform
It looks like the Florida Senate is pushing its own campaign finance reform bill that would increase disclosure and abolish legislative slush funds called Committees of Continuous Existence without blowing up contribution limits like the House version would.
A less positive perspective on the bill from the Miami Herald.